For example, I have a neighbor (in a rural area where CDF is the lead agency) who was told that the plan for his remodel job must include room sufficient on the driveway for a hook and ladder truck to turn around. Never mind that a hook and ladder truck wouldn't make it up the narrow, windy county road, much less his driveway! The real beneficiary (as is nearly always the case in this county) is the local quarry, which makes the aggregate for the pavement. Driveways MUST have ONE FOOT of compacted baserock, supposedly to support the fire trucks... The county road, which hasn't been paved since the '70s, is three-quarters of an inch of oil and screen on bare dirt. The pipes to the house have to be four inch, but the fire trucks can't pull more than a two-inch pipe (the local plumbing supply owner drives a viper). They have doubled the required water storage capacity every five years (he sells the tanks too).
The local county GIS system has a map of fire hazards, that includes a patch below my house listed as a "severe fire hazard." There is no accumulation of combustable vegetation on that slope and the flat below it has been thinned; i.e., no hazard. My property is so well thinned that you can tell the difference on GoogleEarth from 20,000 feet in altitude (everything else is either overgrown or denuded). Within this "severe fire hazard" is also a vineyard. Neither CDF nor the county knows how to correct the map which may well become a basis for denying me insurance. Needless to say, there's no map of fire roads.
Isn't "firefighting" wonderful?
I have hoses, chainsaws, and extra stand pipes. If these morons come here to protect my house, my preference is to tell them to go away.
I came across a long thread about USFS firefighting in CA also....they are short staffing their stations in the National Forests